The instant invention relates to the toy art and more particularly to an audio playback device for use by children.
Audio playback devices have heretofore been known in the art to have significant play value. In this regard, the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Goetz et al 3,529,832; Stewart 3,554,556; Folsen et al 3,711,964; Watanabe 4,150,831; Watanabe 4,433,404; Thom 4,713,035; and Koike 5,054,012 illustrate exemplary devices of this general type and represent the closest prior art to the subject invention of which the applicant is aware.
Specifically, the patent to Goetz et al discloses a sound illustrated book comprising a plurality of graphically illustrated pages, a rotatable indicator dial which is mounted in an aperture extending through the pages and a sound reproducing means which is pre-programmed with a plurality of recorded messages. Each message corresponds to the printed matter on a corresponding page and each page has radially disposed indicia thereon adjacent the aperture. The Goetz et al device is operative by opening the book to a page and turning the indicator dial so that it points to the radial indicia for selecting a message corresponding to the page.
The patent to Stewart concerns a teaching device comprising a housing containing a phonograph record having a plurality of sound tracks which are selectively playable in response to a rotatable and depressible dial. The dial co-acts with a locking mechanism, and the housing includes means for receiving a plurality of interlocking puzzle pieces. When the puzzle pieces are assembled on the housing, they selectively disengage the locking mechanism allowing depression of the dial whereby the sound track corresponding to the selected puzzle piece is reproduced.
The Folson patent is directed to a phonograph toy having a pointer that can be manually turned to select one of several pictures to cause the toy to reproduce sounds that correspond to the selected picture. The sounds are reproduced from a record which comprises a disk having a plurality of spaced lead-in grooves thereon. The particular groove that is played when the toy is actuated is determined by the rotational position of the disc after the toy has been wound prior to playing.
The patent to Watanabe U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,831 discloses a toy record player having an upwardly biased, vertically movable shaft. The upper end of the shaft defines a push-button for starting the device and it also functions as a record holder for holding and rotating a record disk. The record disk has a plurality of pre-recorded grooves on the lower surface thereof and a plurality of markings on the upper surface thereof which mark the starting positions of the prerecorded grooves. Depression of the push-button closes a circuit for rotating the record disk and lowers the disk into engagement with a record stylus.
The second patent to Watanabe U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,404 discloses a sound reproducing device having a rotatable shaft, a turntable fixedly attached to the shaft, a record disk mounted on the turntable, a torque spring motor, and a one way clutch disposed between the motor and the turntable.
The patent to Thom concerns a toy telephone having a dial and a sound generating means which is activated by the dial. The dial is mounted for both rotary and axial movement wherein the sound generating means is operative for generating a first sound upon rotary movement of the dial and a second sound upon axial movement thereof.
The patent to Koike discloses another sound reproducing device having a grooved record disk. The device comprises a casing, a record disk unit which is mounted on a rotatable pin in the casing, means for rotating the record disk, an index setting knob, and an index setting ring.